You're supposed to Kiss?
by JillianHoltzmann
Summary: Erin has a plan, a plan that involves her hanging mistletoe in the office so she can kiss Holtzmann. Except Holtzmann doesn't kiss her, and Erin ends up feeling rejected and embarrassed at having misinterpreted the blonde's flirting. However, she has no idea that Holtz doesn't actually have a clue what mistletoe is.


**Hey guys! I should most definitely be writing chapter for my multi-chapter fics, but I really wanted to write a Christmas themed fic today (after listening to too much christmas music). So anyways, there's a lot of fics about mistletoe and stuff (WHICH ARE ALL SO NICE I LOVE ALL OF THEM) so I decided to write one as well, with a little bit of a twist (I hope).**

 **Anyways, enough rambling. I hope you enjoy!**

 **Comments make my day :)**

 **x E**

* * *

Erin had spent most of last night decorating the office. She wanted it to be a surprise, so she had waited until everyone was gone before she brought in the boxes she had hidden behind her desk a few days before. Obviously Holtzmann hadn't left the office until about 10pm, so she decided to just finish the whole thing early in the morning.

So here she was, at 8am, putting the last Christmas decorations in place just before her friends were supposed to arrive. She looked around, pleased with the results. The place looked amazing, if she could say so herself. She peered into the boxes, suddenly realizing she had almost forgotten the most important thing. She pulled the mistletoe out of the box and looked around the office, wondering where she should put it. She finally decided on hanging it in the kitchen.

Holtzmann, Abby and Patty arrived simultaneously at around 8:30, all carrying steaming hot coffee from the Starbucks that was just a block from the firehouse.

"Oh my god, Erin." Abby said, her jaw almost hitting the floor as she sees all the work Erin had put into the place. "This looks amazing."

Patty whistled. "Damn girl, did you do this all by yourself?"

Erin nodded proudly, a small smile now forming on her lips. Her eyes shifted towards the blonde, who hadn't said anything yet. "Do you not like it Holtz?" She asked tentatively.

Holtzmann looked exactly like a small child in this moment, smiling from ear to ear, mouth slightly open. "Whaaat? Are you kidding me? I love it!"

Erin watched Holtzmann as she made her way through the office, freaking out about every new piece of decoration she discovered. It almost looked like this was the first time Holtzmann had ever truly seen Christmas decorations. The thought saddened her, but before she really got the chance to think about it, the blonde stepped in front of her, holding a cup of coffee.

"Almost forgot," She said as she pushed the coffee into Erin's hand. "This one's for you."

Erin smiled a sincere smile. "Thanks Holtzmann."

Quickly, she glanced upwards, noticing that they were now standing exactly underneath the mistletoe. She cleared her throat and checked to see if Abby and Patty were still within earshot. She was pleased to notice the two girls had moved upstairs, for whatever reason.

"Something wrong, gorgeous?" The engineer asked, frowning as she noticed the somewhat distressed look on Erin's face.

"No, no, everything's just fine." Erin said, a little too quickly. Awkwardly she glanced up once more, a bit slower this time. Holtzmann followed her gaze, both of them now staring at the mistletoe, before she lowered her head again to lock eyes with the woman standing in front of her.

It stayed quiet. Too quiet. Erin could feel her heart pounding in her chest as she waited for Holtzmann's reaction.

Finally, after what felt like forever, the blonde frowned at her as if Erin was the one acting weird. "It's nice." She spoke as she smiled softly at the physicist.

Erin felt her heart clench painfully in her chest. Out of all the things that she imagined could happen, this was definitely not one of them. Sure, she knew that there was a chance that Holtzmann might not like her back, even though she was constantly flirting with her. However, even in that case she had figured that the blonde would at least be honest with her and tell her that she wasn't interested, instead of just avoiding the whole situation in general. She was aware that the blonde was still staring at her, so she cleared her throat and excused herself, saying she had work to do.

The blonde was left standing under the mistletoe, a frown on her face.

Erin left early that day, telling her friends that she was feeling a bit tired after putting up all of the decoration. Erin looks at Holtzmann when she leaves, and she knows the blonde can see right through her lie, always has been able to, but right now she doesn't even care. They all wish her a goodnight and return to their work.

* * *

After a few hours of tinkering with their proton packs, Holtzmann moved downstairs and into the kitchen, suddenly hungry. Usually Erin was the one to bring her dinner when she was so too caught up in her work to even notice the time.

"Hi Abby." She said as she greeted her friend.

"Hey, how's it going up there? I haven't heard any explosions yet today." The brunette said, a friendly but teasing smile on her face.

Holtzmann winked. "There's still time, my friend. Don't get your hopes up."

Abby chuckled as she opened the refrigerator, groaning when she notices the lack of food in there. "You want to order something?"

The blonde nodded eagerly. "Patty!" She called out, "We're ordering pizza!"

Abby looked at her friend, nudging her lightly with her elbow. "We haven't even decided on what we're getting."

"Yeah well, I just decided." The engineer said.

Just then, Patty joined them in the kitchen, her gaze immediately fixated on something above them.

"What's wrong?" Abby asked, noticing the look on her friends face.

Patty smirked, her eyes shifting between the two of them once more before fixating on something above of them. This time, Abby followed her gaze, laughing loudly when she notices the mistletoe hanging above them.

"Okay well.. we're going to have to give Erin credit for this one. That's clever."

Both Patty and Abby were laughing now, Patty immediately grabbing her phone to take a photo of the two women in front of her. Holtzmann squinted her eyes as she shifted her gaze between her friends.

"Wha-"She wanted to ask, but she was interrupted by Abby, who was suddenly much closer to her.

"Come on, Holtz. Lay it on me."

Holtzmann's mouth dropped open slightly, still not understanding what everyone was talking about. What was it with this bunch of leaves that had people acting all crazy. She was aware that Patty was videotaping them too now, so it must be something embarrassing.

Suddenly, and without any warning, Abby moved herself even closer to the blonde and pressed their lips together for a brief second. She pulled back then, smiling broadly at the engineer.

"Happy?" Abby said, now turning towards Patty, who was laughing uncontrollably.

"Yeah, yeah. That was good. I'll sent it to Erin."

Finally, Holtzmann seemed to gain some sort of control over herself. "Guys." She said, causing the other two to turn towards her.

"What exactly did just happen?"

Patty opened her mouth, ready to tease Holtzmann about the kiss, when she suddenly noticed the confused look on the blonde's face.

"Mistletoe." Patty said, pointing at the thing again.

Holtzmann just looked even more confused than before, a frown on her face as she studied the leaves.

"Oh my god." Abby said, "You don't know about it, do you?"

"Know about what?"

"The tradition" Patty said, her gaze now moving towards her phone as she quickly googled the word 'mistletoe'. She handed the phone over to the blonde, who's eyes quickly scanned the information.

"Okay so.." The blonde said after a minute or two, handing the phone back to Patty, "basically it means you have to kiss someone when you're underneath of these things together. Right?"

Both Abby and Patty nod.

"Well," She said, pausing to take a deep breath, "I definitely feel like I missed a lot of chances in college to kiss pretty girls."

Patty laughed, while Abby just rolled her eyes at her friend. They stood like that for a few seconds before realization struck her.

"Oh my god." Holtzmann said, rushing around the corner towards Patty and yanking the phone from her hands. The historian tried to protest, but Holtz was already scrolling through her messages, cursing while she did so.

"What are you doing?" Abby asked.

"Did you send a video to Erin?" Holtzmann said, turning her head to look at Patty.

"Uh yeah…" She answered. "Why? What's wrong Holtzy?"

Finally, Holtzmann found the message she had been looking for. "Oh no." She groaned, letting her head fall down on top of the kitchen counter.

Abby picked up the phone, reading Erin's response to the video. She frowned, having expected something more than just _'hahaha'_ after seeing Holtz's reaction.

"Okay, you seriously have to tell us what is wrong." Abby said, now also walking around the counter and wrapping an arm around her friend. "What happened with Erin?"

The engineer groaned once more before finally standing upright again and making eye contact with her friend.

"This morning, we ended up under this-" She pointed at the mistletoe, "demon thing."

"Oh no." Patty said, already sensing what happened.

"Yeah." The blonde responded, "I uh.. I didn't know what it was."

"What did you do?" Abby asked, feeling bad for her friend, but on the other hand also really excited and desperate to hear more.

"I just said 'it's nice'."

"Dear god." Patty groaned.

"I know, and now she's seen this video so she probably thinks I just rejected her."

"Oh damn." Patty said, now fully understanding how messed up the whole situation is. "Better make it up to her girl."

"Yeah yeah… I will." Holtzmann responded, already trying to come up with a plan.

* * *

The next morning Holtzmann arrived early, even earlier than she normally arrives, immediately heading for the kitchen. She turned on the coffee machine and looked at her watch. It would probably take another fifteen minutes before Erin would arrive at the office, so she still had some time to enjoy a cup of coffee. She looked up then, trying to find the perfect place to stand and wait for Erin. Holtzmann frowned, realizing that the mistletoe was nowhere to be seen.

"What the-" She muttered under her breath.

Suddenly there was a loud bang, clearly coming from her office upstairs. For a second she thinks it's Kevin's dog, Mike Hat, who he sometimes likes to bring by the office. But then obviously, that doesn't make sense, because Kevin isn't even here. She slowly walked towards the bottom of the stairs.

"Anyone up there?" She called out, already searching for some kind of weapon in case someone had broken into their firehouse.

When there was no response, she called out again. "Santa? Is that you?"

Suddenly, Erin appeared at the top of the stairs, looking like she hadn't slept in days. "It's just me Holtz."

"Oh good." Holtzmann said, grinning at the other woman, "or not, because it would have been awesome if Santa was up there."

Erin rolled her eyes and turned around to go back into her office. Holtzmann immediately followed her. "So.. you okay?" She tentatively asked.

"Fine." The physicist responded harshly.

Holtzmann frowned, but decided to ignore it. "Anyways, I really wanted to talk to you about yesterday. Erin I-"

The redhead interrupted her then. "Actually, Holtz, I have to go. I promised Abby I'd visit the Mayor's office today. I'll uh," She paused, "I'll talk to you later. Okay?"

Before the blonde got the chance to respond, Erin was already out of the door.

Holtzmann dropped herself down onto her chair, sighing deeply. Well.. that certainly didn't go as planned. Now she'd have to come up with another idea.

* * *

It was Patty who came with the solution to her problem, which is why Holtzmann had ended up buying a few of those demon mistletoe things herself. She returned to the office, glad to notice Erin still hadn't returned. This meant she'd have the time to place them; she put one of them in the kitchen, in the same spot where it had been before, another one in the small living room area they had, and the third one in the doorway of their joint office. Surely, they were bound to end up together in one of those places.

The physicist returned three hours later, and Holtzmann wondered if she had actually gone to the Mayor's office, or if she had just stayed at her apartment all this time, avoiding her. Her heart clenched painfully at the thought.

"Hi!" She said, greeting Erin more cheerfully than normal.

"Hey." Erin responded, sending her a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes like it normally did.

"How was it?" Holtzmann asked as she moved into the living room area, hoping that the redhead would follow her.

"Uh.. excuse me?" Erin stammered, her cheeks heating up.

"With the Mayor?" Holtzmann clarified, suddenly finding it hard to keep a smile on her face. Erin's stammering practically confirmed what she had already been thinking.

"Right. It was good." She said, even though she could see that Holtz was onto her.

"Good." The blonde responded, shifting her weight uneasily from one foot to the other.

Erin frowned, and then her eyes moved towards the mistletoe hanging above Holtz's head. The engineer's eyes remained focused on Erin, watching her closely. She took a step closer towards the older woman. "Erin-" She started, suddenly interrupted by the physicist.

"I have to go."

Erin was rushing up the stairs before Holtzmann even got the chance to say anything. It seemed like Erin was making a habit out of running away from her. Holtz's shoulders dropped and she waited a while before finally joining Erin in their office upstairs. They didn't talk for the rest of the day.

It continued like this for a little while, with Holtzmann adding another mistletoe to the collection every day. There were about six hanging around the office now, but Erin still managed to avoid them, and Holtzmann, every day. Sometimes, Erin would find Holtzmann casually standing underneath one of them, looking on her phone or tinkering with some equipment to not make it look too obvious. She could feel Erin's stare on her at these moments, but whenever they would actually look at each other, Erin suddenly panicked and always made some kind of excuse to leave the room.

After about a week, Holtzmann decided she had had enough. She waited until everybody left that day, before running downstairs and retrieving two boxes from the hearse. She opened them, and started hanging up the decorations.

* * *

The next day, Erin arrived at the firehouse around 9am. It was later than normal, but she had barely been sleeping after Holtzmann had rejected her earlier this week. She was holding what was already her third cup of coffee of the day. Suddenly, her phone buzzed, and she looked down, noticing a message from Abby.

 _Abby: Hey you, just letting you know me and Patty have an errand to run, so we probably won't be there till like 11._

Great, now she'd have to be alone with Holtzmann. She considered just turning back and going home, but honestly that was just pathetic. She sighed deeply before entering the firehouse. Her cup of coffee hit the floor instantly.

"Oh my god." She muttered, her eyes watering as she looked around the office.

Everywhere, literally everywhere, was mistletoe hanging from the ceiling. Christmas music was blasting from the radio they kept downstairs, all the Christmas lights were on and the normally harsh lighting of the firehouse was dimmed, making the place look even more magical.

She didn't even know where to look as she slowly made her way through the office. No matter where she walked, there was mistletoe hanging above her head the whole time.

"Hey gorgeous." A voice suddenly spoke up, and Erin was surprised by how soft it sounded. She looked down, her eyes widening when they landed on the blonde. She looked absolutely amazing. She was wearing her usual overalls, but she was wearing what seemed to be a glittery red crop top underneath it. The combination would have been weird had it been anyone else, but it just looked adorable on Holtzmann. Also, her hair was down, pieces of mistletoe stuck in the some of the curls. Erin thought she looked perfect.

"What is all of this?" She finally managed to say.

"I uh.." The blonde started, placing her hands in the pockets of her overalls. "I wanted to make it up to you."

Erin frowned.

The blonde awkwardly cleared her throat before continuing. "I didn't know what it meant. The mistletoe, I mean. Trust me Erin, if I had known I would have kissed you."

The redhead noticed a small blush on the blonde's face, and was relieved to know she at least wasn't the only one having a hard time.

"What about the video?" She asked, her heart clenching painfully.

Holtzmann chuckled nervously. "Yeah Abby kinda surprised me with that kiss. I honestly didn't know about the tradition. They told me afterwards."

Suddenly the blonde turned serious, looking down on the floor to avoid eye contact with the redhead. "I uh.. I never really celebrated Christmas at home, so I never did the whole decorations or traditions thing."

Erin smiled softly. "Is that why you were so excited about the decorations?"

"Yeah." The blonde said, finally daring to look up at Erin again. "So anyways, I'm sorry for making you feel like I didn't want to kiss you. Because I do, if that wasn't clear." She gestured towards the mistletoes hanging above them.

Erin laughed then, stepping closer towards the blonde.

"But uh," Holtzmann continued, "It could be that I totally misread the whole situation and you were just joking around, and then in that case.." The engineer took a couple of steps back, now standing in a small little space free of mistletoe.

The redhead smirked. "Holtz." She said as she reached out, grabbing hold of the blonde's overalls and pulling her back towards her and under a mistletoe.

"Kiss me."

"Gladly."

They moved closer together, their lips meeting in the middle. Erin's hand found its way into Holtzmann's hair, tangling in the loose golden locks. The blonde moaned into the kiss, their lips slowly moving together. Erin found herself smiling against the blonde's lips, a smile which only grew when she felt Holtzmann smiling as well.

They pulled back from the kiss, their foreheads resting against each other, eyes still closed.

"Jill, I-"

Before Erin got the chance to say anything, Holtz's lips were already back on her own. This kiss was more heated than the one before, the blonde immediately deepening it. It was Erin that moaned into the kiss this time. Suddenly, and all too soon, Holtz pulled back to smile at her instead. Erin looked at her, clearly confused.

"Something wrong?" Erin asked.

"No, no!" Holtz rushed to explain, "It's just.. there's a lot of mistletoe here," she gently pushed Erin back a few steps under another mistletoe, "and we only have about an hour and a half before Patty and Abby get here, so I figured we'd better get started."

Erin laughed wholeheartedly, using her hand that was still wrapped around Holtz's neck to pull her closer. "Merry Christmas Holtz."

"Merry Christmas Erin."

* * *

 **Hope you liked it!**


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